


wild seeds of the sun

by millimallow



Series: the world of owa [7]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Fantasy, Freeform, Gen, short fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:06:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17577929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/millimallow/pseuds/millimallow
Summary: Part 8 of the World of Owa anthology. A tale of a young man and his first job.rest in the wild grasses where tall flowers grow, you can’t take it with you when you go.





	wild seeds of the sun

sometimes, when the sun rises on a summer morning, i like to leave the city. maybe the buildings in episol aren’t that tall, but sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. that’s when you leave. i grew up in the countryside and it only feels natural to return there; nevertheless i would recommend this to anyone who might read it. you get on your bicycle, or the first early-morning tram out of the city, with your packed picnic and your book and you _ride_.

the horizon is painted in shades of pink and orange and yellow as far as you can see.

post-graduation is a busy time. all the work i put into an organ, only for it to spit me out again like a stray toxin, dissipates like the sweet red smoke a spice trader excites into the air for their customers. between interviews and freelancing and travelling there’s not much left, but then you get a weekend to yourself and it’s like a breath of fresh air for you to take in. and as much as i love them, sometimes your relatives aren’t asking you over at the same time, so you can breathe a sigh of relief. maybe i was always naïve to believe that having siblings out of nowhere was so easily dealt with, so easily adaptable to, because they live far away from you.

enough about my personal baggage. you’re here to read a column about going into the countryside for the day. well, make sure your schedule is clear, is the first thing. the second thing is to make sure you’re packed well. as beautiful as the land is, and as good as it is at providing for us, it will not provide you entertainment and sustenance selflessly. what i mean is- pack a book. pack several, if you read fast. my long-time favourite is nierwei’s anthology of art 3950-4050, pt 2, though any part will do. you probably already know the name nierwei from his own famous artworks, most significantly _the arcophite majestic_ , but there’s a fair amount of his published essays on other works and artists out there, and in my opinion this is the best of the bunch. i’ve always admired _young man on the beach_ by irmeslez nasaghir, and in the anthology nierwei takes his eye to the naturalistic and utopian aspects of the painting which are commonly overlooked in favour of inquisition into the nature of the subject. if you would prefer the beach, many miles away from episol, it will perhaps transport you there. if not, it’s the ideal reading companion on a warm-and-windy day.

and pack food as well. this one is more subjective, depending on your particular diet, but there’s no cooler out in the fields, so don’t pack anything which tends to melt or spoil in the sun unless you plan to consume it immediately. you may want to prepare food in advance, or use some extra money to wander into a nearby town and order yourself lunch and dinner. either way, prepare for how and when you’re going to eat it. being outdoors requires a sanitary surface for eating. when i go, i prepare black pepper-roasted turkey on pale brown bread, smothered with a fruit chutney and accompanied by a package of raisins and cranberries. eat it on your lap, the paper-and-string wrapping becoming your quiet informal plate. of course, water is a necessity, and think of how you’re going to dispose of the remnants so that you don’t spoil the countryside for others. dispose of your apricot pits and apple seeds away from farmers’ fields so as not to contaminate the crops, but feel free to plant them in the earth anywhere else. you can do the same with wild sunflower seeds if you haven’t eaten them all already.

even now, having spent much of my life in both, the difference between the city and the countryside is hard to articulate. not just in the shape of the buildings and their density, or the growing of crops and the quiet- those are easy. the countryside is… tranquil, even to the extent that time almost slows when you’re out there. i look up at the sky and an hour feels like an hour, not a collection of minutes that i just hallucinated in a board meeting between housing planners. you can feel whatever you want out there. with that said, be careful around the country roads. farmers of all kinds out here aren’t used to slowing for crossers, and virtually all of them are still manning the old-style horse carriages with goods storage. any entanglement between you and one of these will be immensely unfortunate for both you and the driver, but most of the pain will be reserved for you. this makes their speed limited, however, so simply utilize common wisdom and look both ways even if you can’t hear anything, and try to cross when you’re higher up on the land. your clothes for the day should be comfortable and practical, avoiding showiness that the locals don’t appreciate, and if you’re planning to be out there until the evening or night then you should at least be somewhat visible. cast a spell on yourself to get noticed if that’s what it’ll take- night is the most dangerous time. i won’t buy into the rumours publicly, but nobody knows a place better than those who live there, and the tale of a herd of goats left outside at night returning with a few missing is nothing to scoff at. maybe you won’t die, but maybe you’ll get mistaken for a goat and kidnapped. this is bad for your punctuality at work the next day.

( _it’s a good enough draft, but i’m not sure how i feel about it. is it too flowery? too intimate? making too many assumptions? this is hard. i studied architecture, and writing about it for a lifestyle newspaper doesn’t involve much academic analysis of form and function. whatever. i can save this for tomorrow… and work on it then. maybe i’ll sign my name here in advance.)_

_\- daer giygromos, junior culture and events columnist. very, very sleepy…_

_(goodnight, work.)_


End file.
